Cloud 9 – Day 2, Barramundi Gorge and Ubirr

Cloud 9 – Day 2, Barramundi Gorge and Ubirr

Like most days during my journey, we woke up early , then breakfast. Once breakfast was finished, the camp was quickly demolished then back to our large 4 × 4 for few hours of driving (one easily loses track of time as distances are so great in Australia that any journey takes at least few hours).

Clearing along the way

Clearing along the way

A wild dingo

A wild dingo

The first stop of the day was Barramundi Gorge. The road getting there can be used by a simple car during the dry season. After the carpark, the path to get there is 2 kilometers walking through the Australian bush.

Sign before accessing Barramundi Gorge

Sign before accessing Barramundi Gorge

The trail we took, lead us to the top of Barramundi Gorge. It began with wooden walkways through lush vegetation. After some minutes, the vegetation thinned to make room for the rocks and a few minutes after, we arrived at the summit. There are small interconnected pools among the rocks that flow into a small lake. After all tiresome bush walking, the water came in refreshing indeed. The guide is a regular here and showed us a little secret passage under water connecting two pools.

Stream giving birth to the waterfall

Stream giving birth to the waterfall

The lake seen from above

The lake seen from above

Once all photos were taken from the magnificent view, we took the path in reverse to go to the lake level. The road followed the river was formed by the lake. Gradually as we approached the lake, the vegetation became scarcer and the sun got really hot (wearing a hat or cap is more than recommended). After several minutes of effort, we were rewarded with the lake of Barramundi Gorge.

On the way to the lake

On the way to the lake

Barramundi Gorge

Barramundi Gorge

In the afternoon, we headed to Ubirr. Along the way we encountered some impressive termite nests (up to 4 meters high).

Termite mount

Termite mount

Ubirr is a rock formation overlooking a vast plain. The place was inhabited by Aborigines for many years as evidenced by many old paintings. The paintings visible today covered many layers of earlier paintings, the aborigines would just redraw on top to tell another story.  The marked path from the parking lot lead us to various ‘art galleries’ and we stopped in front of the last one where our guide told us the story represented and explained us that this was one of the means of transmitting knowledge to children.

A hunter

A hunter

A fish

A fish

The path ended by climbing over the rocks. Once on top we had a wonderful view over a vast floodplain.

Arnhem Land floodplain

Arnhem Land floodplain

In the evening we stopped at a camp in Jabiru, the only “town” of Kakadu National Park.

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